“She will not be a normal baby,” said Samantha Johnson, the mother of the now 6-month-old infant. “She can’t move her arms or her legs normally.”

“She may never recover,” Johnson said as the 26-year-old father watched from the other side of the courtroom in Kent County Jail garb and handcuffs.

Johnson said the baby is fed through a tube, has to wear glasses and has to have physical therapy. Johnson now refers to the baby as Karmen Johnson, although court records list her last name the same as her father's.

Courtesy PhotoKarmen Suchodolski

According to police, Karmen suffered a fractured skull and bleeding of the brain after being shaken.

Johnson said her other children are devastated both by the injuries suffered by their little sister and the absence of their father. She said they ask about their father and she struggles to come up with an explanation.

Johnson said Karmen’s older brother is now frightened of men, even his uncles, as a result of the abuse of his baby sister.

Suchodolski offered little in the way of explanation for his behavior. Johnson said he was upset because he wanted a son not a daughter.